by Ninja Crusaders is a side-scrolling platformer made by Sammy Corporation with a really cool premise: transforming ninjas fighting off an alien invasion. What more could a gamer ask for?
With a great premise, they are off to a good start. So, did they nail the execution, or fumble it? Let’s find out.
Gameplay
The controls are standard side-scroller fare: D-pad to move, A to jump, B to attack, and Start pauses the game. If you hold B, you transform based on the weapon you have. You have 4 weapons at your disposal each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and unique transformations.
The starter weapon is the shuriken. Shurikens are weak in attack power, but they reach across the screen and are quite fast. They come with the tiger transformation. When you are a tiger, you jump higher and move faster. Your attack becomes a short-range medium power claw attack. With this versatility, they are perfect for a starter weapon.
The kusarigama is a medium range weapon with medium attack power. When you transform you become a Scorpion. In this form you swim extremely well for some reason. Your attack becomes your tail, which has the same approximate range and power as the kusarigama.
The bo staff is a short-range and high-power weapon. It comes with a falcon transformation. As expected, it can fly, but it has no attack. It does have a special function in 2 player mode, which is allowing the other player to ride on your back. It takes a lot of skill, but it is one of the most powerful weapons killing anything but bosses in a single hit and a few bosses only take a few hits. It’s not the most powerful weapon, that goes to the last one.
The sword has the shortest range of any weapon, but the highest power. It has some drawbacks in that has a wonky hitbox on the attack and you can only transform once. However, that transformation is rather special, you become the dragon for a short time. In this form, you are immortal, scroll across the screen like in a shmup, and can breathe fire. If you play with another player, both of you combine to become the dragon. If you have the sword, you have to make a choice: use the incredibly powerful blade as long as you don’t pick up another weapon or use the dragon transformation to get past especially tough areas. You are given the shuriken after the dragon transformation ends.
The core gameplay is actually really fun, running around blasting robots and aliens with weapons and special abilities. It’s a bit awkward on hitboxes at times, but still solid. I give it a 7/10.
Graphics and music
The graphics aren’t the best out the NES has to offer, but they are pretty good. The bosses in particular are great; I really like the Xenomorph looking bosses, the UFO, and the samurai bug boss. The basic enemies seem to be reused a lot with palette swaps, but that’s not too surprising given the limitations of the time. I give the graphics an 8/10.
The music is kind of a mixed bag for me. It’s not bad by any means, but it loops very quickly. Some of it got rather grating for as well, but some of it was quite enjoyable to listen to. I give the music a 6.5/10.
Difficulty
You have 3 lives, infinite continues, and there is no password system. You are going to need the infinite continues because you die in 1 hit. Once you die, you go back to the beginning of the stage. However, if you play in multiplayer, and at least one person is alive, you can continue the stage.
This makes multiplayer feel like an entirely different game difficulty wise. There are plenty of tricky enemies hiding around every corner, and the palette swapped enemies often switch up attacks and patterns compared to their former versions. I think the game is a lot more fun with a friend as the difficulty feels more balanced there. In single player, it feels a bit overly punishing.
Final Verdict
Ninja Crusaders is an above average game coming in at a 7.5/10. If you like games like Contra and don’t mind some wonkiness here and there, I can recommend Ninja Crusaders. It’s currently about $44 loose, so it’s not particularly cheap, but not particularly expensive either.
